I love veggies, probably more than fruit. And I’m quite a sneak when it comes to getting the right amount of veggies into my family’s diet. Be it puddings, soups or even lentil curry’s, there’s gonna be at least one veggie blended in and well disguised. This is the way to balance my kids daily vitamin intake, without much of a fuss from their side. But it has to be done in a very clever manner, since kids are on high alert when it comes to such things.
Carrot cake has always been a favourite for me, but it isn’t the case for the rest of my family, they didn’t seem to like any bakery’s carrot cakes, the grated carrot bits coming in their mouth seemed to putting them off. I decided the easy way would be to just grind the carrots finely in a food processor and this worked out to be the winning technique. This Gluten-free carrot cake is really simple to put together once you have all your ingredients in place. Hope you enjoy this recipe! Don’t forge to tag us with your creations in social media.
Ingredients
2 cups Gluten Free flour (use store bought or my homemade version on the link)
1.5 cups ground carrot
1 cup milk (any kind you prefer- camel milk/ almond milk/ soy)
1 ripe mashed banana
1/2 cup unsweetened desiccated coconut
1 cup raw sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 tsp Himalayan salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/5 tsp baking soda
1 tsp Cinnamon powder
1 cup melted butter or cooking oil
1/4 cup golden Raisins (optional)
1/4 roughly chopped walnuts (optional)
Pre-heat the oven to 180 degree C.
You will need a large Bundt cake mould or two round 8″ cake moulds. When I baked this, I made one Bundt cake and a batch of 10 average sized cupcakes with the above batter. The carrots need to be roughly chopped up and pulsed in a food processor, in order to get a finely ground grainy consistency.
Sift all the dry ingredients together- the Gluten free flour, Cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt. With a cake stand mix (or hand mixer) blend the eggs, sugars, milk and oil. Mix in the ground carrot, milk, Vanilla essence and mashed banana. Slowly bit by bit, mix the dry ingredients with the wet ones. Lastly fold in the desiccated coconut, keeping the whisk going in a single direction only.
Drop the cake batter onto your greased cake moulds or cupcake moulds. Top the batter with a good sprinkling of the raisins and walnuts. Bake the cake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cupcakes are smaller so they will get done in 20-25 minutes. You can serve this cake warm as it is or once cooled, remove it from the baking tray and top it with some whipping cream, unsweetened grated carrots and more chopped walnuts. Just perfect for a party!
Tip- For a sugar-free version, add 1/2 cup honey/ agave nectar/ Maple syrup and a 1/4 cup of date syrup to this cake batter and leave the milk to be mixed in towards the end. As the these sugars are liquid, you may only require 1/2 cup milk to get the right cake batter consistency for the sugar-free version of this cake. Those who don’t have gluten allergy, you can even try making this cake with oats flour or organic whole wheat flour.
